Education shapes episodic memory measurement via test specifications: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.

IF 5 2区 医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Social Science & Medicine Pub Date : 2025-10-01 Epub Date: 2025-08-05 DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118473
Yizhou Chen, James O'Donnell
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Many studies have examined how education influences cognitive decline trajectories, often reflected through episodic memory deficits measured by word recall tests. However, little is known about how education affects episodic memory measurement in longitudinal studies where word-list complexity and test form vary. Our study aims to explore whether education influences episodic memory measurement via test specifications in a Chinese context.

Methods: 23,951 respondents aged over 45 (78,364 person-years) from five waves (2011-2020) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were included. We fitted two random-intercept models-one for immediate and one for delayed test scores-to examine how education influences episodic memory measurement across varying test formats and word list complexities. Based on these results, we applied a hybrid frequency-estimation equating approach to facilitate longitudinal studies in CHARLS, accounting for education's impact when word recall tests use varying specifications.

Results: Respondents with higher education scored better on immediate and delayed word recall tests, but all education groups were negatively affected by increased word-list complexity, with lower-educated individuals more vulnerable. Higher-educated respondents also gained more improvement in word recall outcome from extra practice trials when complexity remained constant. After equating, the predicted trajectories reflected more accurate cognitive decline over time, enhancing the measurement's validity.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that education strongly influences episodic memory assessment, as test specifications-word-list complexity and test form-interact with participants' education and shape performance gaps between higher- and lower-educated groups. For equating techniques in longitudinal studies, frequency estimation suits waves with similar complexity, whereas equipercentile equating better addresses substantial complexity differences, thereby enhancing measurement validity.

教育通过测试规范塑造情景记忆测量:来自中国健康与退休纵向研究的证据。
背景:许多研究考察了教育如何影响认知衰退轨迹,通常通过单词回忆测试测量的情景记忆缺陷来反映。然而,在单词表复杂性和测试形式不同的纵向研究中,教育对情景记忆测量的影响知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨在中国情境下,教育是否通过测验规格影响情景记忆的测量。方法:纳入中国健康与退休纵向研究(CHARLS)五期(2011-2020年)的23,951名45岁以上(78,364人年)的调查对象。我们拟合了两个随机截距模型——一个用于即时测试成绩,另一个用于延迟测试成绩——来检验教育如何影响不同测试格式和单词表复杂性的情景记忆测量。基于这些结果,我们应用混合频率估计等同方法来促进CHARLS的纵向研究,考虑当单词回忆测试使用不同规格时教育的影响。结果:受教育程度较高的受访者在即时和延迟单词回忆测试中得分更高,但所有受教育程度的人都受到单词表复杂性增加的负面影响,受教育程度较低的人更容易受到影响。在复杂性保持不变的情况下,受过高等教育的受访者在额外的练习试验中,单词记忆结果也有了更大的提高。在相等之后,预测的轨迹随着时间的推移更准确地反映了认知能力的下降,提高了测量的有效性。结论:受教育程度对情景记忆评估有显著影响,因为测试规范——单词表复杂性和测试形式——与参与者的受教育程度相互作用,形成了受教育程度高和受教育程度低的群体之间的表现差距。对于纵向研究中的等价技术,频率估计适用于复杂程度相似的波,而等百分位等价更能解决复杂程度的实质性差异,从而提高测量的效度。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Social Science & Medicine
Social Science & Medicine PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-
CiteScore
9.10
自引率
5.60%
发文量
762
审稿时长
38 days
期刊介绍: Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.
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